Madrid minus 11 weeks.

[Riazor Blue]

Eleven weeks do not sound too many to my ears. 2 1/2 months sound much longer.

Another week, another 58Km under my belt. One session of fartlek and one of 800m series. Gosh 2 quality sessions in one week. For the last marathon in San Sebastian I was lucky to be doing 2 seesions per month. Time will tell if it's doing any good or not.

Which brings me on to today. 1000 metre series today. Jogged 2km to the harbour wall, then 8 reps of 1000m at an average of 4'15" per km with 2 minutes rest between reps. 2km jog to finish.

Before San Seb, I mentioned to a friend that with a bit of luck and lots of support from the crowds, I may be able to get close to 3 hours for a marathon. Judging by how hard those reps were this morning I'm a long way away from 3 hours. Perhaps 3 hours 20 minutes is possible.

Talking of series, I don't know how closely Runner's World in Spain follows the one in the UK, but over here there's an article on series, it suggests 2 series per week, one for shorter distances and another for longer ones up to 5km, I suppose I could incorporate some of these sessions into my training, although the schedule is geared towards improving ones half marathon times. Perhaps if I upped the mileage on the non-series days it would be OK.

I was shopping earlier in Carrefour, a hypermarket chain over here - France aswell. They have one of those drinks rucksacks in their cycling section. I couldn't work out the capacity, 2 litres perhaps. It costs 27€, a tad under 20 quid. Does that sound a good price? and more importantly, has anyone used one of these? I must admit I'm tempted for the long runs, but worried that it would rub too much on my back.

[Antonio247]

I expect your car is all right now, Brian.

I´ve read about those rucksucks but the opinions are varied. For long runs I use a "riñonera", which is a sort of strap with a big pocket and a place to fit a small bottle of water. I bought it at a shop specialised in hiking and climbing and I don´t find it uncomfortable. I think that a rucksack lets you carry more things but it must be harder to carry.

Congratulations on your hard training. Good luck!

Greetings from Almería.

Antonio

[El Gordo]

For a comparison of prices, RB, check out http://www.wiggle.co.uk and click on "bags - backpack". They have loads of them, and will give you a good idea.

[Riazor Blue]

Thanks for the replies chaps. This was one of those 'camelbak' type thingies, I saw that wiggle has one at that sort of price. I'll have to have a look tomorrow (If I get the car back - it's still in the garage).

Today, apart from being a choccie binge day saw me do 13.5 km this morning. Nice and easy at a pace of around 5'10" per Km. A sunny morning with 5 degrees at 9.30 when I went out. The army was out running this morning aswell. I have no idea how regiments work here, but these guys were all wearing army tracksuits which looked distinctly like John Smith's beer cans (wierd).

I'm looking forward to receiving my rain jacket in Madrid as the old one I run in has been rained on so much that the zipper has rusted.

[Riazor Blue]

Today's a rest day.

I had a hard day yesterday. I have had to wait till today to write it up as I needed the car to measure the route. I got it back yesterday evening, problem with the fuel guage, which has been replaced - basically I ran out of petrol, but didn't have any warning as the bit in the tank said it was half full.

Anyway, yesterday was 3000m series day. Pah, hard work. I decided that a good pace to run these was 4´30 per km, not too hard I thought as I have run this pace in a 12km race before. After 2km warm up at a slow jog, I set off on the first 3km, the paseo maritimo has markers every 500m so it's fairly easy to judge. The only thing was that it was difficult, bloody hard in fact. The first rep took 14´12", but it was slightly uphill. A rise of about 40m in the 3000m. After 2 minutes rest, I returned in 13´55" .It was easier but still 25 seconds slow. 2 more minutes then 15´02" with the last at 14'58".

I measured it in the car this morning at 3300 metres, so I wasn't doing so badly after all.

Still hard though.

[Riazor Blue]

Aahhh, Friday once again. What a difference a day off makes, or is it those series, I don't know. I went for an 8 k jog after lunch today and finished it in 36.5 minutes. That's about 4´35" per KM. Very strange to be that easy because an easy run on that course takes me 40 minutes normally.

Came across a lovely dog owner en route. She had one of those little terriers on an extendable lead. Why dog owners want those things I don't know. Anyway, I spotted the dog in advance, sniffing around it's owner's feet. I made sure I gave the thing a wide birth but as I came close the thing darted out in front of me, yapping like mad. I slammed on the brakes, not wishing to decapitate the dog by running through it's lead and the owner, an elderly woman with a motorcycle helmet for a hairstyle shouted "Careful ! You could have hurt her!"

The only things that sprung to mind at that moment were in English, so not too useful. I really wanted to tell here where I'd stick the decapitated head of her rat if I'd have torn anything in my knee (having to stop so sharply). Instead, I frowned, apologised and carried on.

Next time I'll kill the little f....r.

[Riazor Blue]

Finding routes for long runs can be a little difficult around La Coruña. Firstly, there are no maps. I have been trying to find a map of the area, covering the ‘county’ but they do not exist. I have been told that for ordinace survey type maps, one needs to apply to the army. Secondly, the network of public footpaths that exists in the UK is unheard of in Galicia. There is lots of countryside here, it’s very rural, but all the land is private. Finally, if one runs on the busier roads, there’s a good chance of being run over.

I think I mentioned before that a cyclist friend recommended an area for running. It’s up in the hills just before one enters the city. The area is known a Zapateira and basically, there is the university, the golf club, some posh houses and forests up there. In the last couple of years they have been building a few housing estates up there aswell. Again fairly posh houses.

I have taken the car out a few times to scout around up there, to get an idea of routes etc. On Saturday I decided that I’d give it a go. One has to prepare more for a run like this. On the esplanade there are bars and shops, so if one needs to buy another drink, one can. If something hurts, one can pull up and catch a bus or taxi home. Up there in the hills it’s different. There are a few houses, no buses, no shops, no telephones.

The morning was fairly cold, in the city it was 6 degrees, in Zapateira 3. I wore my running jacket, partly for the cold, but also because I needed to carry money, a couple of isostar food pouches, the car keys, my identity card and health insurance card. Normally I wouldn’t bother with the cards, but being isolated, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

I parked the car in one of the new estates, Valaire. I measured on the way up, that from the main road it was 2.8Km, all uphill. Leaving the water in the car for now, Iran down to the main road, then back up to the car, there are pavements for about half the journey. The hill is steep, probably about 10% a little steeper in places, a little less in others. Pace wise, I set off slowly downhill, and returned even slower, my idea was to keep aerobic as much as possible. These first 5.6km were completed in around 37 minutes. I suppose that the vertical climb was about 400 metres. I picked up water bottle from the car and then made a slight off road diversion to where many muntain bikers were practicing. I only covered about 1Km here as I decided that the terrain wasn’t suitable for my Adidas Supernovas. One day I’ll have to pop up there in the trail shoes for a run as it’s perfect cross country stuff, a hilly, muddy circuit of about 2.5Km.

Back on the road again, I continued uphill, the estate is actually very nice, the houses are semi-detatched, probably 4 or 5 bedroom, balconies, verandahs, garage and a small garden. There are also luxury flats aswell. The estate has only been finished about a year and I’d say that only 20% is occupied at the moment. All told there are about 500 homes here (the semis cost around 160,000 pounds). Continuing upwards I took a left fork in the road at an estate which is in construction, it will be called O Caron, and started to descend. The existing houses here are huge, with big gardens. Between houses is open land. Each house has at least one enormous dog and I imagine that they do not see many runners up there. As I passed each house, the dogs would start barking from just behing the fence.

I followed this road for about 2km, which leads to the golf club. They say that membership is 4,000 pounds per year, but that also gives membership to the pony club in the city. I turned around here and backtracked, up the hill passing the dogs again. At O Caron, I turned left, continuing uphill, this leads to another new estate called MonteGolf. This is the highest point on the hill. They say that it’s about 550metres up. A friend lives in this estate. Lovely house, very quiet, huge skies at night. There’s a communal swimming pool and tennis courts here and there will be a café/bar in the future.

Going back down hill a little there is a road that leads off down the other side of the hill. I took this road, it was very steep. There were a few houses and dogs, the road bears to the right and an unmade road on the left leads off to another new estate called ValleSur, which is almost finished. I was now jogging along quite happily with my isostar pouch, trying not to go too fast downhill, trying to keep on the balls of my feet and not too much on the heels. The area here is a mixture of eucalyptus forest, panted in the 1930s for timber and open gorse. On the way down there are some huge houses, naturally all with corresponingly huge dogs. The council here (Arteixo) have started to build some roads leading off the one I was on, I think the idea was to open this area up for housing, but perhaps it was a bit too remote, as there hasn’t been built anything on any of them.

Finally this road leads into a little village, which is called Uxía. There are about 50 houses here to the left of the road, some are old stone cottages, others are newer. This is a typical rural ‘aldea’ as they are called in Galicia. They say that Galicia is one continious ‘aldea’. Some are like Uxía, small neucleas of houses, with alleyways instead of roads inside. Around the houses are fields, in this case the crop is ‘grelos’ (turnip leaves). Other ‘aldeas’ are linear, in that they follow a main road. The old road from Coruña to Santiago is like this, the houses follow the road, and behing are the fields, one doesn’t know where one aldea ends and the next begins.

I took a right turn past Uxía and the road started to climb again, I was now sort of running along the valley floor, but it was still fairly steep. The road continued to meander and climb for abou 1 ½ Km then I was babk downhill again. Looking at my watch I had just reached the 2 hour mark. I was a couple of kilometers from the village of Feans where there is a large cemetry. Bearing in mind that I still had one hell of a climb to return to Valaire, I decided to backtrack.

The provincial government is doing road improvements here, I think that in the past, this was a logging route and not much more, anyhow it’s just wide enough for 2 cars to pass. Galicia is granite. So when they want to build, be it a road, a block of flats, houses, whatever, it needs a lot of dynamite. Anyhow, en route, I passed a house where they are building a dry stone wall. Where the road is being widened, I saw where the house owner is getting his stone from. One day I am going to build myself a stone house. Especially in Pontevedra, but all over Galicia, there is discarded granite. All I would need is an open truck for a couple of weeks and I’d have my raw materials for free.

Back in Uxía I began the climb up to Montegolf, this was hard work, it was about 3km and rises probably 500m. From Montegolf it was all downhill to the car and blessed releif. All in all I ran 23.5km in 2 hours 42 minutes.

I have to say, although this route was far from easy, and carrying a 1.5 liter bottle of water in my arms was no fun, I really enjoyed this run. I’ll definitely be doing it again. What with the forests and open land, it will be fantastic in Spring, not too many cars either.

Sunday.

Yesterday was back to the boring old stuff. 8km recovery run on the esplanade in 44 minutes. Nuff said.


All in all, this was a fairly heavy week, 80 KM. I’m taking Monday off, and my series will be shorter this week. I had not really planned to be hitting 80Km for another 2 or 3 weeks, so back to 60 or so in the week to come.